If you thought it was over, think again. The government may have torn off its pound of flesh; now it’s the lawyers’ turn.
Arguing that VW “embezzled from the environment” and “polluted portfolios,” a class action suit is demanding an additional $10.6 billion in damages from VW – on top of the estimated $32 billion the affronting of Uncle has already cost the company.
The argument is that VW didn’t alert investors to the “notice of violation” the government (EPA) sent to company higher-ups on Sept. 18, 2015 until four days after it had been received – depriving them of the opportunity to unload their stock before the story became public.
Following which, the value of VW’s stock cratered by 34 percent.
True enough. But their loss is chump change. The real losses have yet to be quantified. But we know who the real losers are.
Us.
We won’t get the 60 MPG diesel VW was working on and had planned to offer for sale in the United States. We won’t get any VW diesels at all. Other manufacturers – including Cadillac (just announced) Mazda, Mercedes and looks like BMW, too – have also either decided not to bring diesels to the market here or pulled the ones they had in the lineup on account not merely of “bad PR” but because of lunatic emissions compliance costs (to achieve environmentally irrelevant fractional reductions in tailpipe exhaust emissions) that are making it too expensive to bother with diesel engines.
How much has that cost us?
These diesels – and not just VWs diesels – were brilliant. They delivered hybrid-car mileage without the expense and complexity of two drivetrains in the same car – and suffered from none of the multiple functional gimps that make electric cars as sensible as a submarine for the desert.
Instead of half or less the range of an electric car, the diesel went twice as far. And when the diesel ran low, it took a couple of minutes to refuel vs. a couple of hours (more like 6-12 hours) for the EV to recharge.
Diesel don’t carry around 400 pounds of toxic materials that will spontaneously burn if they come into contact – as when the battery case is damaged in an accident.
Diesel is hard to burn.
Much harder to burn than gasoline. Orders of magnitude harder to light up than the stuff inside an EV battery. A mere spark won’t usually do it. It requires compression and heat to get diesel combusting. It probably won’t light up if it just leaks out of a damaged fuel tank – even if you throw a match on it.
Try it and see.
Diesel takes less energy to refine than gasoline; it is a simpler product. Electric motors may not be complicated, but the electronics necessary to run an EV and modulate the battery, so as to prevent it from being discharged too much and too soon or recharged too fast – among other things – are very complicated. It is one of the reasons why EVs are so expensive.
The infrastructure that would be necessary to support more than the handful of EVs currently in circulation (about 1 percent of all new cars and almost all of them in California and Arizona) is essentially nonexistent; it will take billions to build it and all of that money will have to be ripped from the hides of taxpayers, since there is insufficient market demand for electric cars to prompt natural investment in the infrastructure – charging stations, power plants – EVs need.
Diesel also work in winter.
EVs do not.
Well, they work – if they are charged up. But if you don’t happen to have access to a warm place – a place where the temperature is above freezing – then you can’t recharge them. It’s the nature of EV battery chemistry.
You can pump diesel even if it’s -10 outside, no worries.
If you can’t find a heated garage, your EV is a brick until you can.
Diesels are also – well, they were – affordable.
EVs aren’t.
Before they got yanked off the stage in 2016, you could have bought a 50-plus MPG Jetta for about $22k – which is $8k less than the least expensive EV available. And bear in mind that “least expensive” is massively subsidized. Without the subsidies, which someone has to pay for, the price of every EV currently on the market would need to go up by about 30 percent to justify its manufacturer.
Unless gas prices at least double, an EV makes as much economic sense as spending $5 on something worth $3 in order to save 50 cents.
Which is why EVs have to be subsidized – and their manufacturer mandated.
Diesels sold on their merits. They required no mandates or subsidies to get people to buy them. Lots of them. VW by itself sold more TDI-powered cars than all the electric cars “sold” (given away at a loss) by every car company “selling” EVs.
You can see why diesels were a problem . . . not for “the environment,” but for the Electric Car Agenda. Which is really a get-them-out-of-cars (or at least, get-them-driving-less) agenda.
It’s hard to get most people interested in a $40,000 electric car that can only go maybe 150 miles before it needs a several hours’-long pit stop when those people have the option of buying a $22,000 diesel-powered car that can 700-plus miles and can be refueled in 5 minutes or so . . . and without having to find a heated garage in the wintertime.
If anybody should be class-actioning, it’s the entire car-buying public. And the target of the suit ought to be Uncle. The out-of-control regulatory apparat.
Yes, VW “cheated.” So what?
The “cheating” VW is “guilty” of is of the same species as performing an illegal U-Turn or making a right on red. These are not crimes because there is no victim.
No harm done.
They are statutory affronts. Manufactured excuses to mulct the innocent. Unless, of course, you take the position that punishment should be meted out to people – and companies – over technicalities. That it is the proper business of government to harm people for not harming anyone but merely because they ignored or evaded some schoolmarmy rule, no matter how silly, arbitrary or counterproductive and wasteful obeying the rule at issue may be.
No matter the number of victims it creates by its existence – and its enforcement. Think of “Drive 55” and the millions who were mulcted on account of it. Who has been harmed by making an “illegal” U-turn when it’s safe to do so? Has Uncle produced even one person tangibly harmed by the fractional differences in exhaust emissions produced by VW’s “cheating” diesels?
VW’s lawyers ought to try out that argument. It might not fly in court, but if they explained it to the public, people might begin to get it .
. . .
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Excellent article, Eric!
I want to address one point you brought up: The group of (former) VW investors who weren’t able to sell before their stock took a tumble.
Reading the paragraph a few times, I see that these investors are suing Volkswagen because the company didn’t disclose the problem until four days later than they received the news from Uncle, when the news became public.
Do these lawyers that came up with this lawsuit know about securities law, or not?
If the company revealed the information when they received it, then it would have been public information as of that date. So there would be nothing for them to sue for in that case.
If the company didn’t reveal this until later (as alleged), then anyone that would have sold in the intervening four days would then be accused of insider trading, because they would have been acting on non-public information.
This scam is a catch-22 for the company, since any claim they make would result in someone committing a securities crime: Either the company itself, or anyone who sold in the interim period. Those securities law crimes are the ultimate non-crimes. Yet they almost always result in jail time for doing nothing of harm to anyone else.
Don’t shed too many tears for VW. They are already producing and selling their cars in Russia, where they will eventually be able to drive to Shanghai on the One-Belt One Road Eurasian transportation system that is taking shape. West down, East up. Make sure your children and grandchildren are studying Chinese and Russian.
The Court has ordered Pillory of VW…courtesy of “plug into the present” ad campaign(youtube), website and “Court ordered Consent Decree” to install $2Billion of Fast Charging stations by VW by the year 2025.
The requirement for them to advertise all their competitors cars in the same commercial, made me “throw up in my mouth, just alittle” when I first saw it. I would not have even known the reason for the commercial if Eric Peters had not publicized this issue…when it first became an issue.
Doubtful the EPA will change position on Diesels, especially when it seems that the “Deep state” is attacking anyone who is appointed by the current admin…read two items and watched a video from Project Veritas on that today…
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1118191_electrify-america-launches-jetstones-ad-campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRgcJusf280
Can one buy a VW diesel in Germany and bring it back to the good ole US of A?
Not until a vehicle is 25 years old. And even after that its iffy if you can.
25 year and older imports are pretty straightforward with the right company to handle things. So yeah, money smooths it out. (Once upon a time I was considering an 1970s aussie falcon)
The only time they aren’t smooth is if the company made the same model much the same way for decades. Like certain Land Rovers. So one, some people cheat and two fed gov does the usual of assuming everyone is cheating. So have some updated parts? They’ll claim the vehicle is less than 25 years old. Which they did to a bunch of people.
Hi Richard,
No. Not unless it meets all applicable EPA/DOT standards… the government will actually send armed thugs to confiscate ad destroy a vehicle brought here which doesn’t. There is a hideous video online of this being done to Land Rover Defenders.
I despise Uncle and the Clovers who are his army.
Yesterday it was VW diesels Today it is plastic straws. The process is this: some “harm” is alleged by some special interest group or tiny band of rent seekers. They manufacture a “crisis” and claim that something evil is killing mankind, the “children” etc.
This new cause is the basis of fundraising and government/foundation grant seeking. Jobs are subsidized to publicize this new cause. Eventually government planners/socialists/opportunist politicians start pushing this cause to “ban” the evil product. Laws are duly passed at midnight, in a rush, and much back patting ensues.
A long list of evil products like this could be named. This tactic is now invading usage of words or even hand gestures, though so far the government money train hasn’t been tapped. Not just yet…
Hi Muggles,
Yes, exactly.
And I have no doubt – none – that it will encompass speech, as it already has in the UK and other countries of Western Europe.
Da gubmint will now have a swear jar? Incredible. There goes half my vocabulary.
I’ll take these Libtards seriously when they get rid of their smart phones and yoga pants in the name of “The Environment”
Hi Zane, I would add the nu male smile to your list: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nu-male-smile?full=1 But then again, I still wouldn’t take them or the Republicans seriously.
Eric, are all those V Dubs still sitting in a parking lot somewhere here in the states? I was making an observation while in Ireland recently. VW’s were everywhere in Ireland. It would be a shame to let them just sit there and waste away when all those potential customers in Ireland would love to have them. My $.02
Phil,
They’re being trickled out of the various national TDI purgatories a few thousand at a time, dealers buy them from VW corporate, do the “fix” to make them “compliant”, then sell them back to the public.
I just bought a Jetta a couple of weeks ago. It had the “fix” done to it and now I am averaging 32.5 mpg. I haven’t done a full highway tank yet (I work away from the city) so it isn’t definitive yet. But this “fix” killed some of the appeal. It does still have plenty of passing power though unlike some hybrids…
Excursion and 7.3 F250 (navstar) used prices just keep on rising.
They can have my 7.3 F250 when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
but when will the so called “men” that head VW grow a pair and take on the control freak communists that are trying to destroy them? instead they grovel at their feet. I would threaten to close every VW dealership in the US and cut off all parts. then go to the US public with the facts on the garbage EV’s and hawk the much better diesels? let the US public with no way to get their VW’s worked on and fixed tear up the politicians. also get a team of lawyers and sue their brains out
My issue with this subject is the idea that the courts of the Matrix are seen as the place to seek a remedy. Courts and their hired thugs, the Pretorian Guards with guns and badges, enforce the political reality established by the money mongers. What football team would play another team when the referees and staff running the game all work for, and wear the uniform of the opposing team ?
We have NO venue nor support for stopping the bull shit that is killing us. Same for the political process.
“Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.”
All these folks that support the national anthem and that hog stomp, fail to see that we are neck deep in Fascism. Do we really want to support that ? What else is it called when the banks and corporate interests converge to deny us products the rest of the world enjoys ?
I am seriously tired of these sanctimonious shit heads who we cannot criticize when they parade around with their faux issues to choke us out.
Get somebody to tell you why we cannot buy French automobiles in the US. Their absence is mind numbing.
2005 PASSAT TDI
1988 CITROEN 2CV6
Morning, Jack –
I’m with you. I try to remain civil about these things, but it is becoming more and more difficult. I, too, am tired of being pushed, nudged, mulcted, controlled and hassled. I cannot go near airports anymore because the sight of the American SA – and of Americans meekly submitting and obeying – sickens and enrages me. I moved to a very rural area to try to get away from Hut! Hut! Hut! But even out here – minding my own got-damn business, not bothering or harming anyone – I am now being threatened over Obamacare.
But, as I have said, I am tired.
If push comes to shove, I will shove back. Not that I will win. But neither will they.
Eric I went to my county building to go to the MV and had to go thru the same as an airport. pockets emptied thru the xray THEN get wanded
Hi Jack,
I agree with you, and your comment reminded me of an issue that I have been trying to get anarcho-capitalists to address. Lets say that the dollar and the state collapses, and a significant percentage of people was in favor of freedom. What now? How would we build voluntary communities where no person has power over others when certain people and families had become super wealthy under the old system without stealing their stuff? A rural neighborhood in the midwest corn patch will have a tiny group of farmers who each own thousands of acres. There are a great many people even today who would like to farm, but big agriculture and the state has made it nearly impossible for a small farmer to become self-employed as one unless one finds a niche. This same situation applies to large businesses. What of the thousands of distribution centers across the country? After such a collapse, the wealthy would remain so, and with great wealth comes great power to influence. Some libertarians had speculated that mega-stores such as Walmart would collapse in a libertarian society, but I am far from being convinced about that.
I suppose that we could ‘redistribute’ the properties of the wealthy who had received ill-gotten gains thanks to previous government policies, but they would argue that what they did was legal, and that they had an obligation to their share-holders to maximize profits as much as is legally possible.
Presently in such a ‘reset’ situation, the wealthy will still hold all of the cards. Or if you prefer board games: It would be like joining a game of Monopoly after someone has already purchased Boardwalk and other good properties, and has already placed a hotel on each one?
I see no solution to this problem aside from theft, and this is one of quite a few reasons I intend to emigrate elsewhere.
You are conflating a lot of different topics here.
Take for example the small farmer. It is true that many US farming concerns are kept alive via subsidies. If Uncle goes tango uniform as in your example it may be that the small farmer does just fine. Or new entrants sing home steading acquire unimproved or land previously owned by Uncle and make a go of it.
This type of thought process commonly came up on freedomainradio and the usual and very good answer is that in such a case )total gov collapse)you don’t know what the market may do in any particular instance you cite above. You can be assured that without the power of the government to back rent seekers, that the truly industrious will end up on top in the long run. Walmart may not in fact be a good example of rent seeking BTW.
Hi Cory,
No, I am not conflating topics here since my topic was about the super-wealthy continuing to have financial power over the rest of us if the State collapses and people are open to the idea of anarchy.
Big agriculture and corporations already hold the Lions share of the wealth in this country, and are like governments themselves. You say that people who wish to farm will simple aquire government land. In most cases, government land isn”t really suitable for farming. This is because the land is arid, marshy, Rocky, or has hills with steep slopes and is forested. Certain military bases can be transferred, but little else. Government buildings certainly could be utilized for private sector businesses.
Further, the megafarms would retain their economic power because they are employers with expensive machines that replaced the labor that use to take hundreds of people to do. There already is a massive amount of people unable to find work, and unless a great many people perish, I don’t see this situation changing in the new world. Excess people means low income. Do the math right now on how many decades of savings it would take for an average person to purchase a 200 acre farm assuming it is in a region that gets good rainfall. In arid areas, you would probably need 4 or 5 times as much land. Walmart was the perfect example here, because they have been known to sell products at a low enough price to force the local businesses to close down, then they raise the prices back up. This is an easy practice to do if one has a large number of stores. In the new world, big farmers would be able to do the same thing to small farmers.
Those conditions were created by the central banking system. Are you making the argument that they can be sustained without the central banking system?
Best that I know few large corporations are in a position to retain such domination if central banking ceases to exist. I may be wrong but there is a lot of leverage being used to maintain the dominance. Without the federal reserve they could very well need to sell. The land and the equipment.
I could be wrong, but if eliminating central banking would consolidate the giants’ position forever then central banking would be eliminated. It seems more that they are dependent upon it.
Hi BrentP,
I realize that the collapse of central banks would weaken corporations, but They have so many assets that I doubt they would get closed down by the market. Remember that share-holders and current employees would do everything they could to maintain the statis quo.
My main argument is that in order for a new society to succeed: Nobody and no entity must be allowed to have power over anyone what-so-ever without his or her informed consent. This must mean a leveling of the playing field across the board, or it won’t work! The question remains: How do we equalize power in a society that currently has 1% of the population owning something like 85% of the assets?
When the institutions of power are dismantled they will have to find a way to leverage those assets. I don’t see how they’ll manage to do it.
This so-called elite turned to government to build their utopia when they failed to do it privately. The first attempts at this company town top down management of society were done by leveraging assets. They failed. That’s when they turned to government’s guns. Built the modern public schools, the federal reserve, the medical cartel, and much more.
I just don’t see how wealth alone can win in modern times when it couldn’t win in simple times. They need central banking and the state as best I can tell.
Hello BrentP,
My work schedule prevented a prompt reply.
The “institutions of power” are so widespread that I am certain some will easily make the transition. I have little doubt that the big 3 automakers, federal banks, and many other rent-seeking corporations will perish if the State and the dollar collapses, but there exists thousands of strongly anti-libertarian smaller institutions across this country which can potentially survive unless power is equalized among all individuals.
A great many libertarians practically worship corporations which means that they are not really pro-individualists at all, like many of us in this group are. I already have mentioned how Walmart uses its size to put local stores out of business by temporarily lowering prices in a given community. All other national box stores can also do the same thing. It is my guess that the box stores having the least debt will make the transition just fine. They will just be hindered from growing so fast due to the loss of imminent domain ‘help’ from the previously existing state. The end of fractional reserve banking will likewise slow their growth because they would actually have to pay market interest rates for loans consisting of real money.
Big agriculture would probably survive too. Some farms may fold, but would likely be bought up by other big farms. Remember that they already have large networks and a global market, therefore they would probably be immune from local boycotts.
Thousands of local “institutions of power” across this country, ie – the good ole boy network, ie local cronies will remain a far greater threat to us on a local level than the national ones have ever been, and mainstream libertarians would support them because the cronies are business and property owners.
There really needs to be a discussion about certain limits outside the boundaries of natural law among libertarians so that the masses can more quickly become educated about the pros and cons of them during a reorganization into voluntary societies. Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State due to the fact that many settlers cheated by claiming land before the beginning of a homesteading act officially began. What do you think will happen when government land becomes available? What if I make the claim RIGHT NOW that I become the sole owner of all of it in the event that the State collapses? Everyone who tries to grab any of that land would be stealing from me, aka initiating aggression upon my property and by extension myself! How would my claim be any different from those gigantic corporations and farms which used shady practices to purchase their properties prior to the collapse?
Another limit that every voluntary community needs to consider are what the acceptable size is of ones holdings. Yes, that sounds communistic, but think about the rights of individuals. Our present mega-farms and corporations are owned or controlled by a steadily shrinking number of people due to consolidation. Should we wait until one farmer family 20 years from now owns virtually all of the agricultural land in our former state before we worry about the financial power he has over us? He presently has the unlimited right to grow his farm as large as he wants. What about the right of other people to pursue self-employment by becoming farmers? This likewise applies to all other commercial operations. Must we be relegated to the position of a cog in a wheel because all commercial and agricultural land is already owned by a hand full of people, and we were born too late? This same hand full of people bear children who are instant millionaires or billionaires without having done anything. These kids get hands on training, sent to the best schools, and take over the business when the solid gold platter is handed to them. We all already know that life certainly isn’t fair; but must we continue to ratchet up the unfairness?
Some anarchists have proposed that the size of farms and businesses be limited to what the family can manage and defend by themselves. Unattended land and buildings could be seized by anyone. I would really love that plan if we were settling on an uninhabited area, but what about this country where some owners own 1000 times that amount? Remember that we would need the support of a significant percentage of the locals before we could pull off limits to property ownership. Most libertarians would presently oppose this idea because they would consider such a transformation to be theft.
Thus I return to my original statement that power must somehow be leveled among all people equally or we will return to Statism very quickly.
We need to remember that there will remain millions of narcissists and psychopaths amongst us if the State collapses, and if they can seize power over us; they WILL seize power over us!
A person should be free to become as wealthy as possible, but there is a need to somehow restrict the power he potentially has over others. I have not yet figured out a good solution for this problem. Perhaps you can. I would love to read it! :0)
Hi Brian,
I plan to address the issue of corporations from a Libertarian perspective in a book I have been sketching out. My problem is time – I badly need more of it. I’m running close to redline as it is – and there are days when I just don’t have the energy anymore. I am trying to figure out a new balance. So far, though – no luck…
VW should be like “Enough, we did what we did, so did everyone else” and shake off the libtards, globalists and other commies trying to crucify them
Quite frankly, if I was in the market for something economical, I’d find a manual Golf TDI, since I can’t stand autos and if I was to need something efficient, want something that doesn’t feel lame and emasculated.
Take all the stuff a hybrid/electric car needs (Aero panels, specialized rims, cvt, ect.) and watch how it preforms.
Also, I could take a Diesel from car A and insert it into Car B and while it might get slower, with some converting, I can have a fully functional car.
What else, what else… Never seen anyone die from a TDI, and Harley did the same thing around the same time as VW, they just paid $15m, chanted “USA!USA!” and no one blinked an eye.
Wonder if Trump, once he’s done with all the BS, will revise things so they could sell Diesels back in the US again
Has anybody seen the propaganda commercials VW was forced to produce and air as part of their public flogging?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRgcJusf280
Do not read the Clover-esque youtube comments either…
Of course, nobody mentions the fact that VW “sponsored” these at the barrel of a government gun.
But it’s right there, in the fine print, at the end of the clip.
Hi AF,
I watched – and had to tamp down the bile.
The comments were worse, though. They were uniformly uninformed; the bleats of sheep who have no clue what EVs are all about. But they love the idea.
You guys call em clovers, I call ’em tools
Regardless, hate the commercials. VW didn’t do anything major, so why are they treated like they’re carrying on The Holocaust 2.0?
(Answer: Agenda 21 and the Globalists plans were threatened by the affordability and range of the Diesels, which were able to provide what their electric cars and hybrids claimed but without range anxiety, able to perform regardless of weather and provide excellent mileage even if ya don’t drive like granny)
“Regardless, hate the commercials. VW didn’t do anything major, so why are they treated like they’re carrying on The Holocaust 2.0?”
It might have had something to do with this;
Russia to produce VW engines for European market
https://www.rt.com/business/314820-volkswagen-russia-engine-plant/
This was announced just prior to VW getting hammered for the alleged cheating.
When I was looking to purchase my first car, I initially thought about picking up a good used ’05-’06 Jeep Liberty CRD (yes, they existed here in the States, albeit they were quite the rarity). But after doing some research, turns out that VM Motori (the engine manufacturer) for some ungodly reason decided to use timing belts instead of timing chains, which of course required the engine to be taken apart roughly every 100k miles or so. On top of that, the trannies that Chrysler used were not built to withstand the increased torque from the engine. Sometimes I wonder if Chrysler deliberately did this in order to turn people off from what could’ve been a nice, reliable 4×4 with good fuel economy.
If automobiles were just coming on the market today, gasoline would be considered “too dangerous” to be used as a motor vehicle fuel. Diesel fuel would be the “fuel” of choice.
We have learned to live with gasoline (which is dangerous) using technology to minimize the risks, this technology being around for a very long time.
Most of what we’re used to couldn’t be made today. Motorcycles? Too dangerous. Washing machines? too wasteful. Civil aircraft? Chaos in the skies. I try not to be too pessimistic, but on a daily basis, I see how the government stifles any kind of development, in any industry.
Light civil aircraft were pretty much litigated out of the skies about 40 years ago. There was a time a blue collar worker could buy a brand new 2 seat airplane for about the cost of a corvette. A new four seater was the cost of a starter house. (You did a partnership or traded your paid of two seater as a down payment.)
Experimental Aviation might just be one of the last bastions of freedom left.
Hi Corey,
Yes – and I wonder how long that will last? I mean… what if… someone might… saaaaaaaaaaaaafety!
Hopefully the safety nazis won’t see the group of old guys at my local airport with those birds. They do some pretty dumb ass stuff sometimes. One even ended up in a retention pond of the church across the street.
The problems from part 91 aircraft have also filtered into homebuilding in that product liability insurance has made homebuilding also more expensive. However, there is a bright spot. The EAA and AOPA have managed to keep the FAA from completely shutting down General Aviation in favor of Corporate jets and the airlines.
“Instead of half or less the range of an electric car, the diesel went twice as far. ”
Typo? Gas not electric maybe?
It only makes sense if it IS a typo.
Well, I think it should have read,
“Instead of half or less the range of an gas car, the diesel went twice as far. ”
As in comparing an electric to a gas car (half or less the range), and a diesel going twice as far as the gas car.
Eric has not corrected it so maybe it was what he meant.
Eric, you wrote, “The argument is that VW didn’t alert investors to the “notice of violation” the government (EPA) sent to company higher-ups on Sept. 18, 2015 until four days after it had been received – depriving them of the opportunity to unload their stock before the story became public.”
Isn’t that the very definition of “insider trading”. That someone is able to sell off stock before some info that will hurt the company becomes “public”?
GovCo would have sicced the SEC on them like ugly on an ape had they done that.
GovCo’s motto: Heads I win, tails you lose.
When will this monstrosity collapse under the weight of its own contradictions?
where did the love of cars go? they took away…
– our right to repair by way of making some things impossible to repair in many ways
– the long term viability of personal transportation
-the courage of car companies to produce goods
-diesel! I want my diesels back and I can’t drive 55!
Amen, GreenDump…
The love of cars (and driving) is an integral part of what was the American Dream…
Maybe it’s time to update the American Dream. Keep your head low, do as you’re told, and you’ll stay out of jail and enjoy some time with your family, in the cold and dark in your eco-rental micro apartment, where you walked from work, while picking up vegan dinner on the way. What I just described probably made a bunch of lefties moan in pleasure.
Hi OP,
That makes me want to fire up the TA and lay some rubber… which I’d do if it weren’t pouring out!
Hi Eric,
Yeah, I have been wondering how the hurricane is affecting you. I know that you live at a high enough altitude that widespread flooding won’t affect your home, but I suspect you are still dealing with heavy rain, wind, and perhaps flooded bridge crossings.
I sure do wish that the eye of a cat 5 hurricane would hit D.C. and just hover there for several days!
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating: Imagine if a sizeable minority of people drove those electric toys in North Carolina. Packed roads, no power, and a storm that covers two states. It’s beyond absurd. It’s downright dangerous.
Considering the current East Coast panic to get out of the path of the current hurricane, it’s a damn good thing no one had to depend on an EV of any sort! Can you imagine the monumental clusterfuck EVs would cause in the even of these annual environmental emergencies that require instant mobility of great numbers of of people? NOW what category of “safety” are we talking about? Shall we sacrifice the security of rapid mobility for the lethality of transportation that won’t even operate under adverse weather conditions? Wait until THAT kills a few hundred people, just because they can’t get the hell out of the way of a hurricane! You think UNCLe is going to take one iota of responsibility for that SNAFU?
The same could be said of a Midwestern blizzard. We know enough to keep our tanks between half and full (Most of us) during the winter in case we get stuck out in the middle of nowhere and need to run the engine every once in a while for heat. How long do you suppose a battery at below freezing temperatures will run a resistance heater coil before it goes dead?
You have hit the nail on the head, brother, AMEN!
You make that sound like a bad thing. Those folks would no longer be part of the wave forcing everyone to get one. They might even make a watermelon or two re-consider their choices. Nah, but it is a nice though.
Bring back the “survival of the not so f’ing stupid”. The gene pool needs a good scrubbing.
When tree-huggers and virtue-posers in immobile ev’s are blocking the roads and creating hazzards for everyone else, it is a bad thing. Also, good people make bad choices, and I would rather they be educated through other means than extermination.
But, I understand where you are coming from. Also keep in mind the goal of the Left is to use the present “democracy” to bring about Minority Rule. This is the principle reason they want to remove guns from the majority of the citizens, to put “control” solely in the hands of the “minority” of Government Workers. This is precisely what every dictator has done as a 1st measure to ensure his dominance and reign of tyranny.
These people are not stupid, but rather very cunning, lethal, and inherently evil.